Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:Q07644 (polypeptide)
 72,197 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

1. Elastin was isolated from the bulbus arteriosus of a salmonid fish. Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, elicited against a CNBr digest of this protein, immunoprecipitated a polypeptide of Mr 43,000 from fish cell culture medium. 2. Cell-free translation of salmon poly A+ RNA produced a protein of approximately 43 kD that was immunoprecipitated with anti-elastin antibodies. The corresponding mRNA had an approximate Mr of 2 kb. 3. Despite similarities in amino acid composition, the differences in Mr between mammalian and salmon mRNA and protein suggest a divergence of fish and higher vertebrate elastins from an earlier ancestral gene.
 ...
PMID:Characterization of elastin protein and mRNA from salmonid fish (Oncorhynchus kisutch). 280 42

Elastin from bovine ligamentum nuchae is exposed to aqueous solutions of different alkyl sulfates and carboxylates (fatty acids). The substrates of alkyl chain lengths varying between C8 and C17 bind to the elastin, the more so the longer the alkyl chain. However, the presence of two (or more) double bonds in the chain obstructs the penetration into the elastin network. As a result of absorption the elastin swells. The rate of binding is determined from the swelling of an elastin strip, that is monitored using a cathetometer. The diffusion of the substrate in the elastin is slower the longer the alkyl chain. The binding is reversible so that the Gibbs energy involved can be derived from the absorption isotherm. The values for the Gibbs energy of binding may amount to some tens of kJ per mol of substrate, with an increment of -4 kJ mol-1 per CH2 group. From the influence of temperature it is concluded that the binding is entropically driven. This, as well as the observation that the glass transition temperature of elastin is not affected by the presence of the alkyl derivatives, suggests that the substrates are bound to the amino acid residues of the elastin, rather than to the polypeptide backbone. Stress-strain experiments reveal that the elasticity decreases markedly on swelling of the sample, irrespective of the type of substrate that is absorbed. The phenomena described in this paper may be similar to those that occur between fatty acids in blood and arterial elastin, which could be at the origin of the development of atherosclerosis.
 ...
PMID:The interaction between alkyl derivatives and elastin. 397 15

The elastic properties of many tissues such as the lung, dermis, and large blood vessels are due to the presence of elastic fibers in the extracellular space. These fibers have been shown by biochemical and ultrastructural analysis to be comprised of two distinct components, a more abundant amorphous component and the microfibrillar component. The microfibrillar component is found in 10- to 12-nm fibrils which are located primarily around the periphery of the amorphous component but, to some extent, interspersed within it. The protein, elastin, makes up the highly insoluble amorphous component and is responsible for the elastic properties. Elastin is found throughout the vertebrate kingdom except for very primitive fish and possesses an unusual chemical composition consonant with its characteristic physical properties. Elastin is composed largely of glycine, proline, and other hydrophobic residues and contains multiple lysine-derived cross-links, such as the desmosines, which link the individual polypeptide chains into a rubber-like network. The intervening, hydrophobic regions of the polypeptide chains between the cross-links are highly mobile, and the elastic properties of the fibers can be described in terms of the theory of rubber elasticity. Recent application of recombinant DNA techniques has led to further understanding of the structure of elastin. Analyses of the bovine and human elastin genes have demonstrated that the hydrophobic and cross-linking domains are encoded in separate exons. These exons tend to be small, varying from 27 to 114 base pairs, and are separated by large intervening sequences. Furthermore, DNA sequence analysis has demonstrated that the elastin molecule contains two cysteine residues which were not previously identified near the carboxy terminus and which may be important in the interaction of elastin with other extracellular matrix proteins. Further DNA sequencing should determine the complete amino acid sequence of elastin. Biosynthetic studies and in vitro translation of elastin mRNA have demonstrated that a 72,000-dalton polypeptide, designated tropoelastin, is the initial translation product. Analysis of several developing systems has demonstrated that elastin synthesis is controlled by the level of elastin mRNA. After packaging into membrane-bound vesicles in the Golgi apparatus, tropoelastin is secreted by exocytosis into the extracellular space where it is cross-linked by a copper-requiring extracellular enzyme, lysyl oxidase. Elastin can be solubilized only by proteases that have consequently been designated elastases, although these are general, powerful proteases that can hydrolyze numerous proteins.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Elastin: relation of protein and gene structure to disease. 615 Jan 37

Elastic fibers are important for elasticity and extensibility of lung tissue. In the developing lung, elastic fibers appear in greatest numbers during the process or period of alveolarization . A variety of mesenchymal cells in lung appear responsible for elastin synthesis. Elastin is a novel protein both from the standpoint of its processing into elastic fibers and chemical properties. For example, elastin undergoes posttranslational modification before its assembly into fibers. These steps include limited proteolysis, hydroxylation of prolyl residues and the oxidative deamination of lysyl residues prior to their incorporation into the crosslinks that covalently bond together polypeptide chains of elastin. The crosslinking amino acids include lysinonorleucine , merodesmosine and desmosine isomers. A key enzyme that controls this process is lysyl oxidase. Lysyl oxidase is a copper metalloprotein whose activity is responsive to and modulated by environmental insults, nutrition deficiencies and the administration of various pharmacological agents. Regarding chemical properties, elastin is one of the most apolar proteins secreted by mammalian cells. Moreover, elastin is one of the most long-lived proteins secreted into the extracellular matrix. In relationship to its processing into elastic fibers and chemical properties, details related to major aspects of elastin metabolism as well as speculation on its potential as a factor in lung development and disease are discussed.
 ...
PMID:Elastin metabolism and chemistry: potential roles in lung development and structure. 637 98

Elastin is a major protein of compliant connective tissue and is characterized by an amino acid composition abundant in nonpolar residues. The soluble precursor to elastin tropoelastin, is extractable in organic solvents and possesses an extensive clustering of nonpolar amino acid residues in the immediate NH2-terminal region (Foster, J. A., Shapiro, R., Voynow, P., Crombie, G., Faris, B., and Franzblau, C. (1975) Biochemistry 14, 857-864). It was, therefore, of special interest to determine whether tropoelastin requires a hydrophobic signal peptide for vectorial transport of the nascent polypeptide. The possibility that the initial tropoelastin translation product possesses a short signal peptide was examined in a cell-free translation system. Total RNA, isolated from aortae of 1-day-old chicks, was translated in an mRNA-dependent reticulocyte lysate translation assay. The translation products were then immunoprecipitated and subjected to automated radiosequencing. Comparison of the NH2-terminal sequence of tropoelastin b synthesized in the cell-free system versus that synthesized in organ culture demonstrated the presence of a signal peptide 24 amino acid residues in length. The signal peptide sequence is as follows: Met-Arg-Gln-Ala-Ala-Ala-Pro-Leu-Leu-Pro-Gly-Val-Leu-Leu-Leu-Phe-Ser-Ile-Leu-Pro -Ala-Ser-Gln-Gln. The preponderance of hydrophobic amino acid residues as well as the polar residues adjacent to the initiator methionine and the carboxyl termini found in the signal peptide is similar to that reported for other secreted proteins.
 ...
PMID:Primary structure of the signal peptide of tropoelastin b. 724 Jan 84

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) undergo a reversible, inverse phase transition. Below their transition temperature (Tt), ELPs are soluble in water, but when the temperature is raised above Tt, phase transition occurs, leading to aggregation of the polypeptide. We demonstrate a method for purification of soluble fusion proteins incorporating an ELP tag. Advantages of this method, termed "inverse transition cycling," include technical simplicity, low cost, ease of scale-up, and capacity for multiplexing. More broadly, the ability to environmentally modulate the physicochemical properties of recombinant proteins by fusion with ELPs will allow diverse applications in bioseparation, immunoassays, biocatalysis, and drug delivery.
 ...
PMID:Purification of recombinant proteins by fusion with thermally-responsive polypeptides. 1054 20

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are biopolymers of the pentapeptide repeat Val-Pro-Gly-Xaa-Gly that undergo an inverse temperature phase transition. They are soluble in aqueous solutions below their transition temperature (T1) but hydrophobically collapse and aggregate at temperatures greater than T1. We hypothesized that ELPs conjugated to drugs would enable thermally targeted drug delivery to solid tumors if their T1 were between body temperature and the temperature in a locally heated region. To test this hypothesis, we synthesized a thermally responsive ELP with a T1 of 41 degrees C and a thermally unresponsive control ELP in Escherichia coli using recombinant DNA techniques. In vivo fluorescence videomicroscopy and radiolabel distribution studies of ELP delivery to human tumors (SKOV-3 ovarian carcinoma and D-54MG glioma) implanted in nude mice demonstrated that hyperthermic targeting of the thermally responsive ELP for 1 h provides a approximately 2-fold increase in tumor localization compared to the same polypeptide without hyperthermia. We observed aggregates of the thermally responsive ELP by fluorescence videomicroscopy within the heated tumor microvasculature but not in control experiments, which demonstrates that the phase transition of the thermally responsive ELP carrier can be engineered to occur in vivo at a specified temperature. By exploiting the phase transition-induced aggregation of these polypeptides, this method provides a new way to thermally target polymer-drug conjugates to solid tumors.
 ...
PMID:Targeting a genetically engineered elastin-like polypeptide to solid tumors by local hyperthermia. 1124 64

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) composed of a VPGXG repeat undergo a reversible phase transition in aqueous solution. They are hydrophilic and soluble in aqueous solution below their transition temperature (T(t)), but they become hydrophobic and aggregate when the temperature is raised above their T(t). In this study, we examine the quantitative uptake of a fluorescence-labeled, thermally responsive ELP as a function of ELP concentration between 5 and 15 microM in solution in response to hyperthermia by three cultured cancer cell lines. Flow cytometry of fluorescein-ELP conjugates showed that hyperthermia enhanced the cellular uptake of the thermally responsive ELP in human ovarian carcinoma cells (SKOV-3) and in HeLa cells at a concentration of 10 microM or higher, but not at a concentration of 5 microM, as compared with the uptake of a thermally inactive ELP control. In FaDu cells, hyperthermia stimulated uptake of the thermally responsive ELP at all solution concentrations of ELP between 5 and 15 microM. In particular, a >2-fold greater uptake of thermally responsive ELP compared with the thermally inactive control ELP was observed for FaDu cells at a solution concentration of 15 microM in heated cells. Confocal fluorescence microscopy of tumor cells incubated with a rhodamine conjugate of the thermally responsive ELP showed that the cytoplasm was uniformly stained below the T(t). Above the T(t), fluorescent particles were observed in the cytoplasm, suggesting that these particles are aggregates of the thermally responsive polypeptide resulting from the ELP phase transition. These studies demonstrate that the endocytotic uptake of a thermally responsive ELP is significantly enhanced by the thermally triggered phase transition of the polypeptide.
 ...
PMID:Enhanced uptake of a thermally responsive polypeptide by tumor cells in response to its hyperthermia-mediated phase transition. 1158 50

Elastin is an extracellular matrix protein found in tissues requiring extensibility and elastic recoil. Monomeric elastin has the ability to aggregate into fibrillar structures in vitro, and has been suggested to participate in the organization of its own assembly into a polymeric matrix in vivo. Although hydrophobic sequences in elastin have been suggested to be involved in this process of self-organization, the contributions of specific hydrophobic and crosslinking domains to the propensity of elastin to self-assemble have received less attention. We have used a series of defined, recombinant human elastin polypeptides to investigate the factors contributing to elastin self-assembly. In general, coacervation temperature of these polypeptides, used as a measure of their propensity to self-assemble, was influenced both by salt concentration and polypeptide concentration. In addition, hydrophobic domains appeared to be essential for the ability of these polypeptides to self-assemble. However, neither overall molecular mass, number of hydrophobic domains nor general hydropathy of the polypeptides provided a complete explanation for differences in coacervation temperature, suggesting that the specific nature of the sequences of these hydrophobic domains are an important determinant of the ability of elastin polypeptides to self-assemble.
 ...
PMID:Self-aggregation characteristics of recombinantly expressed human elastin polypeptides. 1173 83

Elastin is an extracellular matrix protein found in adult and neonatal vasculature, lung, skin and connective tissue. It is secreted as tropoelastin, a soluble protein that is cross-linked in the tissue space to form an insoluble elastin matrix. Cross-linked elastin can be found in association with several microfibril-associated proteins including fibrillin-1, fibrillin-2 and fibulin-1 suggesting that these proteins contribute to elastic fiber assembly, structure or function. To date, the earliest reported elastin expression was in the conotruncal region of the developing avian heart at 3.5 days of gestation. Here we report that elastin expression begins at significantly earlier developmental stages. Using a novel immunolabeling method, the deposition of elastin, fibrillin-1 and -2 and fibulin-1 was analyzed in avian embryos at several time points during the first 2 days of development. Elastin was found at the midline associated with axial structures such as the notochord and somites at 23 h of development. Fibrillin-1 and -2 and fibulin-1 were also expressed at the embryonic midline at this stage with fibrillin-1 and fibulin-1 showing a high degree of colocalization with elastin in fibers surrounding midline structures. The expression of these genes was confirmed by conventional immunoblotting and mRNA detection methods. Our results demonstrate that elastin polypeptide deposition occurs much earlier than was previously appreciated. Furthermore, the results suggest that elastin deposition at the early embryonic midline is accompanied by the deposition and organization of a number of extracellular matrix polypeptides. These filamentous extracellular matrix structures may act to transduce or otherwise stabilize dynamic forces generated during embryogenesis.
 ...
PMID:Codistribution analysis of elastin and related fibrillar proteins in early vertebrate development. 1278 38


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>